Six-Eared Macaque

After finishing his cultivation, Jiang Ming put away the Yin-Yang Reversal Little Heaven-Covering Formation. He had refined two-thirds of the good things he had eaten, while the rest remained stored in his stomach. Once he refined everything, his stomach felt empty. Jiang Ming did not like that feeling.

After some thought, he decided to first take a look around the territory of Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven. This place was still within the domain of Smoke Glow Grotto-Heaven.

He did not choose to fly on his sword, as that consumed too much true essence. Jiang Ming's cultivation was still too low.

However, his current physique gave him more than ten times the amount of true essence that he had possessed at the same realm in his previous lifetime.

That was the benefit of possessing a powerful physique.

Still, Jiang Ming could use the Immortal Wind Cloud Body Art to travel. It was a spell technique that could also be used as a movement art, allowing him to dart swiftly across the Huang wilderness.

At the first level of the Qi Refining Stage, one's divine sense covered a radius of thirty meters.

At the second level of Qi Refining, it covered sixty meters.

At the third level of Qi Refining, it could reach a radius of one hundred meters.

As for Jiang Ming, who was at the sixth level of Qi Refining, his divine sense should theoretically have covered two hundred meters.

Yet Jiang Ming's divine sense had reached a radius of five hundred meters.

Logically speaking, with the primordial spirit from his previous life, that little divine sense was hardly worth mentioning.

However, ever since awakening his memories, Jiang Ming had discovered that he possessed only the memories. The power of his original primordial spirit no longer existed.

No matter what, though, his divine sense already gave him a considerable advantage.

With the memories of Chinese Paladin from his previous life and his powerful current physique, Jiang Ming would soon grow stronger.

Jiang Ming traveled swiftly. Every leap, every burst of momentum, carried him more than six hundred zhang.

In other words, each time he borrowed momentum and used the Immortal Wind Cloud Body Art, he swept nearly four li away like a gust of wind.

He covered eight hundred li without pause in just over ten minutes.

After all, each full circulation of his cultivation technique took around four seconds.

Of course, he could not keep sprinting like this for too long.

With Jiang Ming's cultivation, he could last at most ten hours.

To be honest, the old him could only keep it up for one hour at a stretch.

All of that was thanks to his physique.

"Phew."

He had reached the outskirts of the Primordial Ruins. Crossing this outer region meant traveling another two hundred li, and the territory of Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven lay on the other side.

He had chosen this route mainly so that he could gain some experience in the outskirts of the Primordial Ruins, kill a few demon beasts, and gather some spirit herbs along the way.

The Primordial Ruins had a mysterious origin and were relics left behind from the Desolate Ancient Era.

Moreover, the Primordial Ruins themselves were boundless and stretched endlessly. The six great grotto-heavens and blessed lands of the Yan Kingdom were all situated around them, and those six grotto-heavens and blessed lands were merely a small part of it. The Primordial Ruins still held many secrets that had not been unearthed, while vast tracts of land remained unexplored and uncleared.

This ruin was filled with opportunities, but death accompanied them as well. Upon entering, one saw towering ancient trees and tangled old vines. The roars and cries of all kinds of rare birds and strange beasts rang without end.

Naturally, many precious spirit herbs also grew here. It was the favorite place for disciples and elders of the six great grotto-heavens and blessed lands to explore. Those six great grotto-heavens and blessed lands had originally been established upon these ruins. Like fields and forests scorched clean by wildfire, they would sooner or later grow even more lush vegetation.

Rebirth after destruction—stories had never been lacking upon this boundless land.

With a thought, Jiang Ming transformed directly into a golden-furred ape with six ears. That was right, he had used the Seventy-Two Transformations to become a Six-Eared Macaque. This way, he could borrow part of the Six-Eared Macaque's innate gifts.

His comprehension of the Seventy-Two Transformations was quite deep, allowing him to borrow sixty percent of the talents of a Six-Eared Macaque at the same cultivation level.

In other words, a Six-Eared Macaque whose strength was comparable to his own could probably hear things two hundred li away at this realm.

And thanks to Jiang Ming's profound comprehension of the Seventy-Two Transformations, he could hear sounds up to one hundred and twenty li away.

With such a talent supporting him, traveling through the Primordial Ruins became far safer.

Jiang Ming secretly marveled to himself. He roughly knew which world his Seventy-Two Transformations treasure technique had come from. It was likely related to Perfect World. Wasn't the ferocious beast Zhu Yan the Primordial Red-Rumped Divine Ape?

Different regions simply called it by different names.

During his comprehension of the Seventy-Two Transformations treasure technique, he had experienced the growth and eventual despair of a Zhu Yan that had reached the Supreme realm.

Unfortunately, apart from the Seventy-Two Transformations treasure technique, he had forgotten all other details.

Still, empowered by the talents of this ancient ferocious beast, Jiang Ming felt that as he walked through the ruins, he had become a Six-Eared Macaque of impure bloodline, a Primordial Species. Every rustle of wind and grass in the surroundings entered his ears, leaving nothing hidden.

Jiang Ming's six ears received waves of sounds from all around him, allowing him to determine where savage beasts and exotic birds could serve as prey, and where powerful strange beasts and spirit birds roamed, requiring him to avoid them in advance.

The heartbeats and flowing blood of those savage beasts and exotic birds that dominated this region, fierce and brutal in nature, entered Jiang Ming's six ears like pounding drums and rushing rivers. By their differing frequencies, he could easily judge their strength. This was an innate instinct of the Six-Eared Macaque race.

Very soon, Jiang Ming's eyes lit up. He had not expected such an unexpected harvest from this trip.

Within a hundred li of him, Jiang Ming heard something interesting. There was not only a fight, but also something valuable: the Nine-Leaf Phoenix Divine Herb.

This herb grew only where Phoenix blood had once fallen, transforming the place into a pure land capable of nurturing such a rare and extraordinary plant.

As for why it was called a divine herb, the more ignorant people were, the more likely they were to exaggerate the names of heaven-and-earth spiritual objects.

For example, when mortals saw cultivators, they could not help calling them immortals.

Of course, this herb was actually only comparable to a five-hundred-year spirit medicine. Its only precious quality was that it might contain a trace of Phoenix aura, granting it the effects of extending one's lifespan, cleansing the marrow and purging the meridians, and healing injuries.

"You Rogue Cultivators, withdraw at once. I will pretend that none of this happened today. Otherwise, bear the consequences yourselves. Think carefully—Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven has Other Shore Realm cultivators overseeing it. Finding you would not be difficult.

"Spirit herbs may be good, but your lives are more important."

The voice was sinister, hoarse, and piercing, like the sound of a rusted machine grinding into motion.

"Han Bugua, as a cultivator of Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven, you commit such shameless deeds. You ambushed us Rogue Cultivators and used our lives to scout the way for you.

"At the crucial moment, you stabbed us in the back and injured our brothers. Now you want to easily obtain the Nine-Leaf Phoenix Divine Herb? Not a chance."

"That's right, Han Bugua. Why spell things out so clearly? Are you trying to use your sect's power to suppress us? At worst, after this job, we brothers will flee far away and leave the Yan Kingdom."

"Elder Han, if you do not hand over something today, I am afraid this matter cannot be settled peacefully."

On the other side stood three differently dressed people. Judging from their auras, one of them was actually a Life Spring cultivator.

That made sense. Unless one possessed exceptional talent, a special bloodline or physique, and powerful secret arts and ultimate techniques, fighting across realms was almost impossible. The gap between Sea of Bitterness cultivators and Life Spring cultivators was enormous.

Jiang Ming knew the original plot. Ye Fan, the mighty Desolate Ancient Sacred Body, had clearly entered the Sea of Bitterness Realm and become a Sea of Bitterness cultivator. Yet because he lacked suitable secret arts and divine abilities at the time, when he encountered Elder Han, he had almost no ability to resist. He had been captured and nearly turned into a medicinal ingredient for Elder Han to refine into pills.

It had to be said that fate was truly mysterious. Jiang Ming had been looking for his dear friend Elder Han, yet he had actually found him.

Being an ape was truly marvelous.

Could it be because he had become a Six-Eared Macaque?

Even after taking detours around several dangerous areas, Jiang Ming covered the hundred li in only three minutes.

This was what Rogue Cultivators were like.

He saw that the three Rogue Cultivators were all white-haired old men. They wore metal armor over their clothes and carried weapons on their backs, looking like martial artists from the jianghu.

Using the Fiery Golden Eyes of the Six-Eared Macaque, he swept his gaze over them and saw that the armor was made only from refined gold painstakingly extracted from refined iron. This was the clumsy method ordinary cultivators used when they wanted to forge artifacts.

A thousand jin of refined iron could yield only one liang of refined gold.

Ten liang made one jin.

Moreover, refined gold was merely the lowest-grade material for forging artifacts. It was not only heavy, but the resulting artifacts had mediocre effects and durability.

But there was no helping it. The path of cultivation had always been incomparably difficult. Wealth, companions, methods, land, luck, and more—none could be lacking.

Ordinary cultivators could only rely on clumsy methods.

The old man on the left wore black clothes beneath golden armor.

The old man in the middle wore gray clothes beneath azure-gold armor, with a little Azure Light Gold added to the refined gold.

Azure Light Gold was of the same grade as Star-Pattern Iron, Black Obsidian Iron, and Yimu Heartwood.

The old woman on the right wore green robes. Blue starlike patterns flowed across her golden armor, meaning that a small piece of Star-Pattern Iron had certainly been added.

Looking at their weapons—sabers, spears, and swords—they had all been forged from painstakingly refined gold. Blue ghostly light flowed along the blades and spearheads, which was also due to Star-Pattern Iron having been added during refinement.

The defining quality of Star-Pattern Iron was its greater sharpness and ability to pierce armor.

Within their Sea of Bitterness, each of them also possessed one or two artifacts, which counted as hidden trump cards.

Naturally, Elder Han's side was much more extravagant. Within his Sea of Bitterness were twelve Greenwood Sword artifacts.

These were dharma swords refined from the heartwood of a Jade Ghost Tree with three hundred years of cultivation.

In terms of quality, they were no worse than dharma swords refined with Star-Pattern Iron.

If they had to be classified more precisely, they could be called mid-grade artifacts.

This old man stood only about five feet three inches tall. His body was hunched, his bones protruded sharply, and he looked withered as dead wood.

His hair hung loose, and his snow-white locks covered his entire face, making his features impossible to see. He looked like a sinister, venomous ghost or an ancient corpse from the depths of the mountains. Even the green hemp robe he wore was an artifact, woven and refined from the hide of a two-hundred-year Ramie Demon.

It could withstand the attacks of ordinary Life Spring cultivators without its defenses being broken, making it a mid-grade treasure robe artifact.

It was not something refined gold armor could compare to. That armor could at most be considered a low-grade artifact.

With his current equipment alone, he already completely outclassed the other three Rogue Cultivators.